Her
by intheclosetcontest
Summary: "Her voice was beautiful and sweet, the one saving grace in my burning hell." An idea of what really led Rosalie's change into a vampire. Rosalie/Esme


**Title: Her****  
****Pairing: Rosalie/Esme****  
****Word count: 2,531****  
****Rating: M****  
****Summary: "Her voice was beautiful and sweet, the one saving grace in my burning hell." An idea of what really led Rosalie's change into a vampire. Rosalie/Esme**

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**Chapter One**

_Rosalie's Point of View_

I first saw her at a party. My first thought was that she was beautiful. She was wearing a purple dress with a silver bow. Her hair was in a bun.

She was standing with the new doctor, Dr Cullen, and a boy who looked to be his son, I did not know his name. Or hers.

She looked bored out of her mind, but she stayed where she was. I was guessing she was the dutiful trophy wife, stored in the apartment and only brought out on special occasions. You know, the kind of wife who never says anything but manages to laugh in the right spot and make lovely profiteroles? How wrong I was to be proven.

She walked up to me and smiled. My heart skipped a beat. I saw the sons eyes darken and naturally thought that she was here to ask me to dance with him. I was disappointed but still delighted to speak to her. I plastered on my biggest smile and greeted her, "Hello Ma'am. Having fun to-"

She cut me off short. "Rosalie Hale, isn't it?"

"Umm... Yes." I replied, surprised.

"I'm Esme. Esme Cullen. I was wondering if you would do me the pleasure of dancing?" She asked.

I was stunned. I liked women but I had never been asked to dance by another woman. "Sure." I stammered nervously.

She took me up into a waltz. The dance of the evening. She danced wonderfully, her steps were beautiful and graceful.

I was sad when the dance was over.

She gestured towards the bar and I followed her. She ordered me a glass of champagne but didn't have any herself. I found it strange, but did not question.

"So Rosalie, are you free at the moment?" She asked.

I thought of my fiance Ralph and instantly shook my head. He wasn't important. "Umm... No." I replied.

"Good." She nodded, "Can I see you again sometime?"

I smiled and nodded in affirmation and she handed me a telephone number. I looked down at the number and when I looked up again she was gone.

**Chapter Two**

I called her and arranged to meet her at her apartment. I was nervous as I rang the doorbell.

She answered with a huge smile on her face. "Come on in Rose!"

I smiled back. "Thank you Esme. You have a beautiful apartment." I gushed.

She shook her head and gestured for me to sit on the couch. "No need for formalities." She said and pointed to a plate of cookies on the table. I took one and munched. They were delicious.

"I used to be a cook, you know." She mumbled absent mindedly.

"I could tell, these are delicious." I complimented.

"Thank you." She then leaned across and surprised me with a kiss. "Come on." She said taking my hand and leading me towards the bedroom.

"So I'm guessing you've never done this?" She asked.

I shook my head, I hadn't.

She proceeded to strip me of my clothing. She then stared at me with hungry eyes. She leaned down and nibbled my nipple making me cry with pleasure. She grinned somewhat evilly. "Wait. It gets better." She said. She then moved down my body, kissing and touching everything. She then proceeded to work her tongue in little circles inside me until I couldn't take any more. I reached my peak and screamed in ecstasy. She smiled and pushed with her tongue once more, helping me along. I screamed once again, finishing my orgasm. She looked at me, smiled and said "You know, I think I'm beginning to like you."

As I came down I realised that I was beginning to like her too.

**Chapter Three**

Over time the like began to blossom into love. We saw each other many times, sometimes at her apartment, sometimes at cafes and other places. We even attended a party together.

One day she invited me to her apartment again. There was a plate of strawberry crepes out this time and I noticed, as always, that she didn't eat anything. This time I finally asked, "Esme, why do you never eat?"

She looked surprised, as if she had never considered this herself. She bit her lip. "Rose. I love you but there is something I need you to know."

"What?" I asked. I was scared. I knew she had a husband but what else could she be hiding?

She hesitated for a moment but then responded. "I'm not actually human. I'm a vampire. Don't worry though. I'm a vegetarian vampire." She made little quotation marks around the word vegetarian, "I only drink animal blood."

I fell to the floor in laughter. "A vampire? You seriously expect me to believe this!"

She nodded and I realised that she was serious.

"If you're a vampire, then prove it." I challenged.

She accepted the challenge by baring her fangs and picking both sofas up.

"Okay. So you're strong." I said, "But that doesn't prove that you're a vampire."

She then opened a cupboard and I saw a smorgasbord of blood bags. I was almost ill.

"I believe you now." I said weakly, "You're a monster." She looked hurt and I instantly regretted that statement.

I looked back at the bloodbags and felt ill again. "You know, I would never want to be a vampire." I stated.

She nodded. "I understand. It's horrible at first. I hope you never have to go through it."

We sat in an awkward silence. I ate more crepes.

After a while she leaned in towards me. "Please do know that this is a highly classified secret and if you were to tell anyone it would mean instant death for the two of us." She threatened.

I nodded, still afraid of being sick.

She relaxed and smiled. "Good. I know there's also something you're not telling me. Who's Ralph?" She asked.

I barred my teeth. I didn't want to hear about Ralph. "He's my fiance. It's a forced union." I said angrily.

She saw my anger and her eyes began to tear up. "I'm sorry Rose."

"It's fine." I snarled, I didn't want her pity, only her love, "I don't see him very often anyway. Only during formalities."

She shook her head again and looked at the clock. "You had better go Rosa. I love you." She kissed me and I left the apartment.

**Chapter Four**

On the way home I pondered Esme's revelation. Vampires were monsters. Terrible, ugly things to be scared of. Esme wasn't a monster, was she?

I continued to ponder until I heard a voice behind me. "Oi! Rose!"

"Ralph?" I replied, scared of the response.

"Yeah. It's me. What have you been doing at the Cullen house?" He asked, his tone thick with menace. He came up right behind me. I could smell that he had been drinking. He smelt like bourbon and sweat.

I composed myself and came up with a good excuse. "Mrs Cullen and I are good friends. She has been teaching me knitting." I cheered inwardly, thinking knitting ought to be a good enough excuse.

"Yeah, if knitting stands for fucking." He slapped me, "You do know the whole of New York now knows my fiance is a lesbian?" He spat on the ground as if lesbians were the scum of the Earth.

I was scared. "Ralph. You've been drinking." I said, stepping away from him.

"Oh no you don't!" He grabbed me in a choke hold and whispered in my ear, "You need to learn to be faithful bitch."

I struggled and he gripped tighter. He began attacking me. I screamed and cried for mercy. "Shut up bitch!" He hissed and he pulled out a knife. I tried to break free but he stabbed me. Once in the shoulder, once in the back of the knee and the fatal one, the front of my neck.

**Chapter Five**

_Carlisle's point of view_

I was walking home from work when I saw a man attacking a girl. I yelled at him, "Oi!", and then saw him run off down the alleyway. I ran to the girl and saw that she was bleeding, heavily. I checked her wounds. Stab wounds. Shoulder-Non fatal, knee-non fatal, neck-shit.

I then saw who she was. Rosalie Hale. I knew what she was to Esme, and I knew I needed to save her for Esme.

I bit down on her wrist, hard. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to inject vampire venom. I then injected venom into each of her wounds and saw them beginning to close.

I looked around to make sure no one was watching and I carried her back to our apartment.

I put her into the bed in the spare room and sat waiting for Esme to come home. She had gone to a friend of ours. She came home at eleven and saw the pained look on my face. "What is it?" She asked.

I gestured towards the spare room. She walked in and saw Rosalie lying on the bed, she made a pained noise like a wounded animal and collapsed to the floor. I tried to pick her up but she swatted me away. I walked out of the room. I could still hear her crying. It was horrible. I walked back in and gave her a piece of news that I thought she would be delighted to hear. "Esme. She'll wake again."

Esme looked up. "Yes but she'll have changed. She'll be a vampire."

I shook my head. "She probably wouldn't have changed that much."

"She wouldn't want this." She said, "She was sick just looking at the blood. She called me a monster."

I bit my lip and shook my head. She seemed ungrateful. I could not understand how she felt. I walked out of the room and stayed out.

**Chapter Six**

My body burned. It was horrible. My head, my legs, my arms, my stomach in burning agonising pain.

In my head there were horrible dreams. There were monsters. They were trying to kill Esme and I. I screamed at them but they would not let me be.

My fingers and toes felt like lead.

I could not see.

But I could hear.

Every argument that went on beside my bed. I could hear Carlisle arguing with Esme about the need to hunt for blood and Edward fighting with Esme about the pain she was putting on Carlisle.

I could hear the lullabies she sung me.

_Good evening, and good night, with roses adorned,_ _With carnations covered, slip under the covers._ _Early tomorrow, so God willing, you will wake once again._ _Early tomorrow, so God willing, you will wake once again._ _Good evening, and good night. By angels watched,_ _Who show you in your dream the Christ-child's tree._ _Sleep now peacefully and sweetly, see the paradise in your dream._ _Sleep now peacefully and sweetly, see the paradise in your dream_

Her voice was beautiful and sweet, the one saving grace in my burning hell.

**Chapter Seven**

I awoke to find her sitting next to my bed. She was wearing Carlisle's old shirt and she looked as if she hadn't hunted in days. With the flicker of my eyelids she had turned towards me, a tentative smile on her face. "Esme?" I asked cautiously, scared I may have gotten her name wrong in my daze.

"Yes Rose?" She replied with a smile, taking my hand from the mattress and holding it in her own.

"How long have I been asleep? What's happened to-" My question was cut short by a searing pain in my throat.

Like a thirst.

I realised what it was. _Blood thirst. _I looked at her in shock and she nodded in confirmation. I couldn't believe it. I had been made like her. A vampire. _A monster._

Before I could open my mouth Esme placed a cup in my mouth. I drank and my thirst was gone. "Was it human blood?" I asked, fearful of what I had drank.

"No," She replied, placing the cup on a table, "it's panther blood. My choice in game."

I couldn't believe how calm she was. I felt angry. "How can you be so calm when you have just made me a vampire! A monster!" I raged.

"It wasn't me!" She began to cry, "It wasn't me Rose! It was Carlisle!"

"Well you could've stopped him!" I strained to get out of the bed, only to find they had chained me there. "Dog chains?" I screamed. She bit her lip in apology.

"I wasn't there! I wasn't there when he changed you!" She sounded hurt. As if she sympathised and knew my pain. She didn't know what I was going through. She said herself that becoming a vampire was the best thing that had happened to her.

We sat staring at each other in silence. After a few minutes she knelt beside me and stroked my hand. "You know I would've stopped him. Even if it meant losing you." A tear fell on my hand.

I was confused. "Losing me?" I asked.

Esme looked up into my eyes. "Don't you remember anything that happened?"

I shook my head slowly.

"Ralph." She whispered. One word and my heart collapsed. "He found out about you, me-us."

"Wha-what did he do?" I asked cautiously, scared of the response.

She shook her head. "You don't want to know."

Suddenly I saw it. What he had done. It shocked me to my core. "He-"

Esme nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. "Rose. Don't say it."

"He just left me there to die!" I hissed, my eyes also brimming with tears.

"Rose! Please don't. I don't want to hear about what happened." Esme looked pale, well even more pale than a vampire could be. She looked delicate and fragile. Like a little porcelain doll. Like she was about to break.

I realised in that moment that I forgave her. I still loved her.

"So what will happen to us?" I asked. "Will you tell Carlisle?"

She shook her head. I opened my mouth and then she said "He already knows."

I felt somewhat relieved but confused. Esme saw the look on my face and proceeded to explain. "My relationship with Carlisle is as his mate. His hunting partner. My relationship with you is based on love. He has a similar relationship with Edward." I screwed up my face, the image of the two of them was too much to handle. She laughed at the face I made.

I was still confused though. About my future as a vampire. "What do I do now?" I asked, fearful of the future.

"I don't know. Maybe me?" She poked her tongue out and I laughed, "You have eternity."

I could then see the small silver lining. I had eternity to spend, with her.


End file.
